PCRs were repeated in triplicate using samples from three replicate cell cultures for each primer pair and glucose culture condition. A final mean relative band intensity value was calculated from the three PCR replicates for each primer pair and glucose culture condition. Band intensity values from each sample were corrected for background and made relative to RPL19 values from matching samples. Relative percentage changes were calculated from values obtained from HG relative to NG cells (HG/NG). Error bars represent S.E.M. values. Statistically significant P-values are indicated by * (for P values <0.05) and ** (for P values <0.01). The images under each bar show the associated typical PCR product band intensities observed for each of the primer pairs, whereby HG and NG represent the proteins derived from cells grown under hyperglycaemic and NG culture conditions respectively. The PCR product band sizes for each mRNA of interest were, from left to right, 224 bp (SPCA1), 288 bp (SERCA), 400 bp (GAPDH) and 255 bp (β-actin).